A Sunday night ritual I’ve had for many years is listening to “The Jazz Decades,” hosted by Ray Smith, on WGBH radio Boston.
http://www.wgbh.org/897/programDetail.cfm?programid=282
Tonight, it was announced that Smith, 87, passed away on Friday. Considering his age, I can’t say this is a surprise, but it is sad news, and a loss for radio and music. The realization that I am now five years older than Smith was when he started at WGBH, and that I first listened to him while still in my 20’s, certainly gives me something to think about.
Some of the names of the Jazz greats from the 20’s and 30’s that Smith often featured, like Teagarden and Beiderbecke, I first learned from a set of cards by Robert Crumb. Hover over the picture to read the back of the card.
At this moment, Smith is playing a recording by the legendary Belgian guitarist Django Reindhardt, with the equally incomparable Stéphane Grappelli on violin. For moi, it doesn’t get any better dan dat.
One of the Internet stations on my list of favorites on my Logitech Squeezebox Radio is WGBH’s 24-hour stream of “The Jazz Decades.” So although Smith is gone, with nearly 2,000 programs in the library, he shall remain.
Very nice you got to meet Ray. Please see what I posted for you. https://dograt.com/2023/04/for-john-w-derby/
Loved Ray Smith beyond all words. Ran across his JAZZ DECADES one evening while just tuning my radio. As I kept listening his programs featured jazz which I had been introduced to in the late 50’s when George Lewis’s band came to play at my high school in Peterborough. I kept listening to Ray and loved jazz which I still do. He even read part of a letter I wrote to him. I ‘d missed his intro but it sounded familiar. It was part of what I wrote. Got to meet him several times in NH. RIP Ray
Ray certainly led a full life, and those Crumb cards look ANYTHING but “crummy.” Too cool. Plus, you experienced that same disquieting feeling I got when I realized Dad was only a year older than Tom is now (59) when I moved to central PA in 1987! I, too, love jazz, but this is the one genre of music I can’t share with Molly, beyond George Winston’s intrepretations of Vince G.